Though I have much improved, I won't deny that in my late teens and early twenties I had much difficulty showing the least disrespect to a woman, even so much as raising my voice at her. In school, yes, I was taught to assert my boundaries; but it was also generally presumed that a woman understands what "no" means. So aside from being taught to always be kind to a woman and saying "no," I never actually learnt to truly defend my boundaries against a woman.

Now under normal circumstances, it didn't affect my day-to-day life; but once I met my ex-wife, it was easy for her to force me into a non-sexual then sexual relationship and finally marriage leading to a suicide attempt on my part.

Initially, she just pleaded, begged, pouted, stalked, and harassed. That was to force me into a non-sexual relationship that lasted a few weeks. Even when I burst out in frustration, I still at least tried to keep the tone down; yet the more emotion I showed, the more intensely she escalated to compensate, mainly through the shedding of tears. Just her persistence provoked such severe anxiety attacks that I'd acquiesce just to escape the attacks. I would repeat "no" many times but just couldn't bring myself to raise the tone of my voice or express any other aggressivity even though it was clearly needed, except when I couldn't take it anymore and even then tried to restrain myself.

Then it escalated shedding tears, unwanted touching, and expressing anger, to force me into a sexual relationship. When I told her I felt angry, she didn't take it seriously probably because the tone of my voice didn't suggest I posed a threat to her yet.

As I slowly learnt to defend my boundaries more firmly, she finally escalated to pointing a knife to her stomach threatening suicide because I continued to try to leave her. Yes, she finally succeeded in forcing me into marriage.

Now my question: how common is this that a man in his late teens or early twenties is so conditioned to show a woman respect that when she persists in pushing his boundaries, he literally has not received the necessary education to defend himself adequately.